AUGUST 13, 2013 (New York, NY)—Today Condé Nast Traveler, the most trusted name in travel, named Soria Moria a 2013 World Savers Award winner.

The award is bestowed upon travel companies with exceptional achievement in social and environmental responsibility. This year, out of 174 applicants, Condé Nast Traveler has chosen 14 top travel companies to receive the World Savers Awards.

Soria Moria receives the World Savers Award for DOING IT ALL: City Hotels. Condé Nast Traveler describes the reasoning as “because it changes lives in its community.”

“These winning travel companies and destinations are powerful forces for sustainable, responsible, and eco-friendly travel. They also offer service, style, and great adventures to guests and visitors. Our readers ask us, ‘Can having amazing travel experiences also help change lives?’ and thanks to these companies – the answer is yes,” said Condé Nast Traveler editor in chief Klara Glowczewska. The awards are announced in the September issue of Condé Nast Traveler, on newsstands nationwide on August 20, 2013.

Its employees, all from poor backgrounds, own 51 percent of the hotel, and thanks to its scholarship program, 14 staffers have graduated from college. That’s big news in a country where only 12 percent of men and 7 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 have completed secondary school.

For the seventh annual World Savers Awards, applications were accepted in eight sectors—small hotel chains (fewer than 20 properties), large hotel chains, city hotels, small lodges and resorts (fewer than 50 rooms), large lodges and resorts, tour operators, cruise lines, and a new category for destinations—and assessed in five areas: Education Programs, Environmental and Cultural Preservation, Health Initiatives, Poverty Relief, and Wildlife Conservation, by a panel of judges.

The panel of judges included: Jeffrey Sachs (The Earth Institute), Laurie David (producer of An Inconvenient Truth), Olivia Wilde (Artists for Peace and Justice), David Alport (UN Special Envoy and MDG Health Alliance), Luigi Cabrini (UNWTO’s Sustainable Development of Tourism), and Dorinda Elliott (Condé Nast Traveler).